directly at odds with house speakerjohnboehner. >>could you accept a deal that does not include tax rate increases for the wealthy? we've seen talk about a possible compromise that could leave rates the same but cap deductions for high-income earners. is that something that's acceptable? >> no. >> not at all no, way? >> no. the preponderance made it very clear in his campaign that there are not enough -- what you just described is a formula and a blueprint for hampering our future. you cannot go forward -- you have to cut some investments. if you cut too many you are hampering growth, you're hampering education, investments for the future. >> and even thousands of miles away it appears president obama is still focused on those negotiations. while touring a royal monastery with secretary of state clinton in thailand the president was overheard mentioning the budget talks to a monk. the president later clarified his comments -- >> he's not any monk. >> no. >> he has some big i vestments in the stock market. >> he later clarified his comments at a news conference. >> yes, we were working on

to avoid tax hikes and spending cuts.johnboehnerisasking to outline a plan and get fellow republicans on board. ryan will likely be under the most pressure to back away from his conservative politics. his run for vp no doubt brought him some new-found respect and political clout amongst his colleagues. they say they will confident they will be able to reach some sort of a deal by the engineer of the deal, they need to be at an impasse when it comes to taxes. they said any deal to reduce the deficit should come through pro-gross reforms. that means things like lowers rates, and closing loopholes. >> just to close loopholes is far too little money, and they have said they weren't it to be revenue neutral. the president has been very clear, that the higher-income people have to pay their fair share. >> that means no deal from the democrats if republicans will not agree to raise taxes on the wealthy, but pelosi says she is optimistic. more john coming up after the break. stay with us. ♪ created ad message for little caesars who proudly salutes unites

. >>> if the fiscal cliff negotiations seem familiar, we've seen the movie before. president obama andspeakerboehnerwereunable to reach a debt deal in 2001. one of the by-products of the inaction was a downgrade of the country's credit rating. could this happen again? and what would it mean for the nation's financial standing across the globe? joining me is jared bernstein, senior fellow at the center for budget policies and priorities. good to see you again, when it comes to the credit rating, we've seen it happen before. all three credit rating agencies are saying you've got to put a deal together in washington, if you guys in washington don't get it done, we're going to downgrade your credit. >> we've seen this movie before. it's not a good movie. i will remind viewers that the last time standard and poors did take us down a notch, it actually didn't hurt our ability to finance our debt at all. so that was kind of blown off by the markets, but this time could be different. there's one interesting wrinkle here. i do believe that if the political discourse, which is actually sounding a little bet

on that. ifspeakerboehnercandeliver 25, 30 votes, we'd supply the rest of them. there's an easy and quick answer to that. the rest of it, the amt, the farm bill, there are many tax issues besides just the income tax rate we have to resolve, too. i worry about the estate tax done and other ones done if we can, and then push the other matters to next year. >> thank you so much for your time. we greatly appreciate it. talk with you soon, hopefully. thank you. >> thank you. >> the first read team reports there's a sense in the white house they need a cease-fire negotiation in the middle east asap. it could come down to a test of the new egyptian government. nbc's deputy political editor mark murray will join us live. plus, new jersey governor chris christie, you might say he stole the show on "snl." >> you have been wearing that fleece a lot. >> yaeshgs it's basically fused to my skin at this point. >> we'll have more. it's one of the things we thought you should know. >>> welcome back. president obama now on the last leg of his unprecedented trip to southeast asia. the president we